


Upended in Choas

by Story__Satan



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/F, F/M, Gymnastics, Hogwarts, Lily Evans Potter & Severus Snape Friendship, Marauders Era (Harry Potter), Original Character(s), Originally Posted on FanFiction.Net, Pranks and Practical Jokes, Severus Snape Bashing, Snape is a cunt, Swearing, but I forgot my account email so hello, meme references, now known as Upended In Chaos, she can't help it, she has issues okay, shes trying, was originally called Capsized, welcome to destructive oc 101
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-16
Updated: 2019-12-15
Packaged: 2020-01-15 03:07:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 13,012
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18490066
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Story__Satan/pseuds/Story__Satan
Summary: (Originally known as Capsized)She had failed all of her O.W.L.s and all but one of her friends had left her behind. The year was 1975 and Juniper Darling would have to do it all over again. With angst in her head and fire in her heart, she knew she had to do it right this time. But can she pull it off in the same year as the bloody Marauders?





	1. Prologue

**Prologue**

Red moonlight poured over the manor settled upon a hill which was surrounded by a thin, yet deep, moat. Within the large and noble building was an assembly hall of sorts. And besides the dim, orange candlelight that was unevenly arranged along the aisle amidst crowded pews, the light of the moon that seeped through the tall, arched, black-framed windows was the only source of light to see the tense, dead looks all around.

Atop the nave, a father and daughter stood holding each other by the wrist. Between them stood a gold font, emblazoned with their family crest amongst other patterns of flora and creatures, some mythical and others entirely muggle. It was called the sacred chalice, which contained the secret behind their eyes.

“I will,” began the father, baring fangs within a grin as he looked down at his kin, into her eyes, aglow and crimson, much like the moon above them. “Your title as heiress stands still, and immortal glory will be presented to you at the completion of your task.”

A wife and mother stood behind the sacred chalice, her wand moved in a motion of infinity, binding the vow. Her closed smile, behind lips painted black, dropped as her gaze turned away from her husband, and snapped to her daughter, whose nerves seemed to only reveal themselves to those closest to her.

“And will you, my dear, accept only death as the singular result of your failings to complete this task? Do you agree to the terms laid at your feet?” spoke the clan’s current sovereign consort.

A loosely curled lock of black hair was moved out of the daughter’s eyes and tucked behind her ever-so-slightly pointed ear, by her sometimes intimidating mother. In all of the young woman's years, she had never quite been prepared for the pressure she felt right now weighing heavily down on her entire being. In her honest opinion, her future leadership, if it was even achieved at all, would change a lot in this small society. This rite of passage ritual was ages old and she honestly found it entirely unnerving. Nothing about it was humanely right.

The only issue was, she seemed to be the only one with this belief. However, as it was an unspoken rule to never speak your opinion on the ancient methods, she still hoped that there were plenty more who would do anything to bring a little more gentle approach to such an important time in any young person’s life.

Tearing her eyes away from her hand, she scanned the crowd, the assembly of witnesses to the momentous occasion, sifting through each row of beady red eyes of all different shades, searching for any sign at all for mercy.

Nothing. She was forced to internalize her horror upon finding none. In the place of the mercy she greatly fantasized about, was only determination and trust. Far too much trust. It brought a powerful wave of nausea–a nervous gut wringing–to her stomach, and forced her to return her gaze to he who clutched her wrist.

With any sign of fear chased away with a single, audible swallow, before her trembling, purple-painted lips opened, allowing her agreement to slip past them. “I will. I understand the terms: should I fail, I will be cast away with the wind.” Having definitely ensured that her words were clear to anyone in the assembly hall, the daughter held her breath, watching as the unbreakable vow was finalised as the white binding faded away, one piece at a time.

Her mother took up a goblet of the family recipe of wine made by the house elves in the manors basement brewery. It was made from the juices of Argentinian white grapes, Spanish peach juice, Polish raspberry juice and rose petals from the roses in the front courtyard of the manor. She raised it in her right hand, while raising her wand in her left, before proudly announcing:

“And so, the vow has been completed. Our dear heiress has a destiny to fulfill.”

As all within the pews all rose and cheered, the husband disconnected his hand from his daughters wrist to raise his own wand, wordlessly casting lumos maxima. Before either his wife or their community could follow this movement, the heiress released a heavy breath under the noise of all of those to trusted this decision.

She raised her own wand, casting a weak fireworks charm over the pews and fought with herself, but smiled anyway.

That night, after all of the festivities were over, she shut herself in her room and collapsed onto the stool of her ebony vanity, cushioned with a royal purple velvet. She distracted herself with the curiosity of why she didn't like to use glamour charms on special occasions, just like her mother, she preferred to use muggle makeup. Whether it was something to keep her mind clear of concern or because she found it fun occasionally, she would never know.

But what she did know was that it surely would not take her three years to get it done. And she would change everything as soon as she could.


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

Ah, Kings Cross Station, the home of platform 9 ¾. But this wasn't like any other September 1st, Kingsley Shacklebolt had reminded his mate. No, this year, 1975, he would be going into 6th year, but his friend would be remaining in 5th.

Her name was Juniper Darling, and she had failed every single one of her O.W.L. examinations. She was embarrassed—humiliated, even—and had been staying at the Shacklebolt household since the summer had began. And if it wasn't for the fact that Juniper was loved by all in their family, she'd have been unable to dodge the following arguments her parents would have started with her.

Gloria, Kingsley’s mum, had warned her that she was only making the situation worse by not returning home in the first place. Juniper started her summer confident about what she was doing, but overtime she was reduced to feeling as if she was going to spew all over her case right about now.

“I wan’to remind ya, sweetheart,” Gloria said to Wanda, her youngest child, who was about the enter her second year at Hogwarts. “That, whatever happens this year, Kingsley and Junie have your back, okay?”

“Yes, Ma.” Wanda sighed exasperatedly. “You told me that last year.”

“And I'm tellin’ ya this year, too.” She smiled, putting her hands on her two younger children's shoulders, before her eldest piped up.

“I'm just sayin’, Ma,” Bonnie said, leaning on Juniper’s shoulders. “We are here to see Wanda, Kingsley and Junie off.  _ You  _ are _ not  _ here to get _ into a fight  _ with _ Mr and Mrs Darling _ . As you said  _ yourself _ ,  _ this morning _ , this is Junie's fight, not ours.”

“I know. I know, but it's hard. She's one of us, as much as she's one of theirs.” Gloria argued, which brought Juniper to grin. Though it was made clear in everything the Shacklebolts did for her, it was still nice to hear that she was an honorary member of their family.

“And  _ you _ , Darling, you did this to yourself. So don't even think about letting your anger reach a wand-pointing level. I can arrest you for under-aged magic now.”

“Alright–alright, I get it. You're an auror now. You have power.” Juniper snorted, before cocking an eyebrow and smirked up at Kingsley's older sister. “But what if I do it after I'm  _ on _ the train? Eh?  _ Eh _ ?”

“If a spell leaves the carriage, I'm apparating onto that train and _arresting you_ _on the spot_.”

“Don't challenge Bonnie’s power.” Kingsley warned. “You saw how long it took Ma to reverse the effects of that tripping jinx she cast on Wanda last Christmas.”

“I'm still not over that one bit. You owe me Bonnibel,” muttered Wanda, glaring at her brother for bringing it up again.

“Now–now, that's enough fighting like cat an’ dog you two.” Gloria interrupted as we stopped at the entrance to our destination. “Alright now, I’m right behind ya, Wanda. Let's go.” She said before running through in tandem with Wanda.

Kingsley and Juniper shared a glance, but he took a step back, gesturing to the concealed entrance. She burned a glare into the side of his face, simply earning a grin, before taking a few steps back, running forward enough to gain enough momentum to actually cross into the platform and then set her feet on the base of the luggage trolley, screeching “Wahoo” as she did so.

Kingsley and Bonnie eventually joined the other three on the wizarding platform, and before he even registered anything going on around him, Juniper ducked behind him.

“I'm not here.  _ I'm not here _ .” She mumbled.

“Go get ‘em tiger.” He grinned, pulling her up by her upper arm and stepped to the side having now seen her parents.

“Good luck.” Wanda whispered before giving Juniper a double thumbs up, and sharing the concencered look the rest of her family wore.

She took three or four steps forward, before stopping, hunching her shoulders and scrunching her eyes shut at a shrill yell of her name.

“JUNIPER JUNO DARLING! GET OVER HERE IMMEDIATELY!”

Camellia Darling was usually a calm, patient woman. But her introduction happened to be at a very bad time. A time where although she loved her daughter, her middle child, for everything she was worth, she also wanted to tear her hair out for being so thick. Not academically, no. Thick in the terms of common sense. She couldn't help her anger. Of course not, her father was German and her mother was Puerto Rican. And when this anger truly shined, as it did now, her thick confused accent really strongly reared itself from its long slumber.

Anthos Darling. How could we forget? Though he had more self-control and patience compared to his wife, who had the self-control and patience of three pencils, he could still yell.  _ Oh, he could yell _ . Juniper suffered from what he referred to as ‘middle child-itis’, which just meant she was the hardest of their three children to deal with. He still loved her, sure, just not the majority of her choices.

After a yelling match that had started within the next five seconds, making the Shacklebolt family both uncomfortable and angry at the same time, Camellia decided that shouting the loudest would actually get the pair to listen to her. Surprisingly, due to how scary she was when she was angry and not on your side, it did actually work.

“Oh my good god,  _ enough _ ! Now, listen to me! The pair of you!”

“Mama!”

“No! Enough.” She raised her hands in front of her face so she didn't metaphorically or literally take her daughters face off. “I'm sick of all of this fighting!”

“Camie!” Anthos attempted.

“No-no-no-no-no! Shut it, Anthos! Listen to me, NOW!” The mother roared, her temper hotter than any furnace. “Stop pushing me away when we talk! You're beginning to sound like your father, and you know what a right son of a fucking bitch he was! I didn't marry Apollo! How dare you leave after you blow up! How dare you not consider me—like it  _ all _ comes down to you!”

“Why don't we talk about it now, then?!” argued her husband, who sometimes had a habit of listening with his ears, but not with actual understanding of the things he was telling her.

“No, I'm talking now!  _ We  _ talk  _ later _ .” She said, before she snapped her attention to Juniper who was frozen with fear. Uh oh. That wasn't a good look. “As for  _ you _ !  _ You stayed out all summer _ !”

“Mama, I can explai–”

“Zip it, Juniper,” growled her mother, frightening a small child nearby. “You scared us half to death! If it wasn't for Kingsley writing to us telling us where you were, I'd have thought you dead all summer!” Camellia shrieked like a banshee.

“I'm sorry, Mama.” Juniper mumbled, her cheeks aglow with embarrassment.

“Save the apologies for your father!” When her daughter looked confused, she continued. “He has barely slept since the day you were supposed to come home! He's been worried fucking sick! All he's wanted for you your whole life is the best! Yet, for months, you have lied to us! What'd we fucking do to make you think we wouldn't do anything and everything for you!” She pulled her husband by the collar and her daughter by her arm, so she knew they were listening. “We solve problems as a family! You come home, not go off and make matters worse on your own! One day you'll come back home to find that I'm not waiting for you to get your shit together anymore!”

To this, Anthos muttered an apology while Juniper trembled and stared blankly at the floor. Why did she expect it to be any easier than just going home? Gloria was right. She would have to apologise in a letter, because she felt too much like shit to do so now.

Camellia took a few deep breaths and walked over to the Shacklebolt family, holding her hand out. She shook each of their hands before smiling. “I'm very sorry you all had to see that. You know I'm not usually like that.”

“It's alright, Mrs Darling. You have a right to be fumin’.” Kingsley smiled. “I tried to get her to go home. Ma did too.”

“Thank you for looking after her, Gloria. You should have really sent her straight home to avoid all of the faff.” The mixed race woman said, sounding kind of embarrassed.

“I don't know what your style is, but my style is making them learn from their mistakes.” Mrs Shacklebolt began, with slow hand gestures that gave her this formidable, Herculean sturdiness and superiority that a lot of women just couldn't quite pull off the same way she did. Yet somehow, it was comforting–almost inviting, if you will, to Juniper’s mum. “However, you're daughter has been an absolute delight all summer. ‘Was doin’ everything that  _ was  _ and  _ wasn't  _ asked of her. She's good, ya know.”

“I know–I know, she just... I admit. She's learnt how to be dim from her dear mother.” Camellia jokingly mocked herself rubbing at her right cheek, embarrassed even more about how she had caused such a scene when her daughter had virtually made up for it. She had stood for a short while only to find that the two Shacklebolt siblings, who were due to get on the train, had already done so but not before each giving their mother a hug. They had even had time to properly recover and breathe, due to the fact that Gloria had always given them bone-crushing cuddles, to make them know they were loved.

Mrs Darling whirled around and had found that Juniper had already escaped onto the train, but her oldest and youngest were bidding her husband adieu. She ran up behind her son and hugged him from behind tightly.

“I love you, honey. My precious head boy. Make me proud.” She smiled.

“‘Love you, Ma.” He responded, patting her on the back of her head.

She smiled and let go, spinning around and hugging her daughter. “I love you, sweetheart. Enjoy Hogsmeade. You'll be alright. Write to me straight away if there's a problem. I'll get back to you within the same day if I can.”

“Thanks, Mam. You're my best friend. You know that?” River responded into the crook of her mother’s neck.

“You're a good girl. Now, go. Enjoy school. I'll see you at Christmas, alright?” She smiled, receiving a nod in return. She watched as her son led River onto the train, carrying all of her stuff as well as his own.

Every year, Camellia found herself slightly tearful and leaning into her husband’s side, restlessly searching for her children to give them a big smile and a largely spanning wave. However this year, she was evermore tearful wondering how long it would be before Juniper gave up and responded to her weekly letters. Camellia didn't like to leave things on a bad note, but sighed after the train had entirely vanished from sight. She had taught all of her children to give as good as they get, so what had she done to deserve such stubborn behaviour?


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

All was silent within the siblings’ compartment. Eduardo was reading over his notes he had made about all of the things he had to explain to the prefects, Juniper was having a crisis and River was quietly reading a book with a blanket around her slumped form to combat the cold breezes of early September.

The eldest only had one friend, who also happened to be his lady love and fellow head girl, Sophie Emmert, meaning that she liked to spend the ride with her female friends, and since he didn't like to seem overbearing, he let her get on with her life. Besides, he would see her in ten minutes in the prefects carriage anyway.

Juniper used to have many friends, but now Kingsley and Wanda seemed to be the last remaining pair that still believed in her. But it was her own fault she was having to repeat her fifth year; she generally forgot that without revision she was clueless, as exam halls made her feel ten times more stupid than she already thought she was. Apparently Andrea, Rosemary, Martyn and Indigo felt that way about her.

They had stopped responding to her letters after she told them she had failed her exams and had admitted she was a pussy for camping out at the Shacklebolt’s. When Kingsley took her side, he had told them where they could shove it, even charming their letters to fold into a hand and backhand them across the face for being so foolish enough to consider an entire five year friendship over just because of exam results. So they refused to speak to him anymore either. Not that he minded, to be honest.

And then there was River. She had never had a friend before, at least not one that wasn't related to her. She had been too scared to approach anyone, which had made her reconsider her choice to join Gryffindor entirely. She had thought that if the hat said to follow her siblings into the house of the brave, then it was right for her. She could have chosen her other option–Ravenclaw. People would appreciate her work ethic a lot more if that was the path she went down. She really ought to ask Dumbledore to help her out. But still she knew, she was far too fearful to approach him.

At the 2 hour mark of their approximately 7 and a half hour journey, Juniper began to go slightly mad due to the silence. She decided the air was too empty for her liking and pulled at the red hem of her t-shirt sleeve. The sleeves actually almost reached her elbows as her normal top size was a medium, but she loved baggy clothing, so it was an extra-large. Her mother had once told her that it made her look strange, but Juniper had always been function over form. As long as she was both confident and comfortable, and there was no particular hazard, loose clothing she would wear.

Why was she so nervous to talk to her siblings? Perhaps it was because she had been away so long that they could have changed something about themselves completely. Maybe. Probably not. Either way her anxiousness was justified. They had more of their mother’s fiery Hispanic-Germanic attitude than her. Her father's nature of being so laid back he was virtually horizontal had rubbed off on Juniper greatly.

“So—uh, like—how was your summer, guys?” mumbled the blonde, biting at the inside of her mouth.

“Shit,” spat River, who bent the corner of the current page she was on, like a monster, even though she had a bookmark in her hand. It left Juniper confused until the third year pelted it at her face. “You ruined it for me. Completely.”

“Well, I'm sorry, Riv’, but I was having a hard time.” Juniper apologised, putting a finger under her nose. “Shit, I’m bleeding.”

“You damn well should be. You know how things are. Boo-hoo, you failed all your OWLs. Get over yourself, you mangy dog. You know summer is the best portion of my year; I'm not by myself all the time, and—” 

“In my defence, I come and see you, and you tell me to break my legs on the way to my dorm. So, that's not my fault.” Juniper argued.

Eduardo simply rolled his eyes, deciding not to fire a charm at his bleeding sister, as a punishment for being selfish, but staying quiet, as he preferred.

“Do you not remember? We were going to go to New York, Juniper. We couldn't go on holiday because you didn't come home.” River responded, watching with amusement that lay deep inside her, as blood stained her sisters crisply ironed white t-shirt. It served the bitch right.

Shit. That was right. She had wanted to go to New York ever since she was little. Juniper could mentally recall many moments where her toddler sister had babbled about the city that never sleeps, and once she did, she started to feel bad. Still she couldn't lose this argument.

So the sisters continued to bicker for the next hour and a half. And at some point during the last fifteen minutes, as River began to win, Eduardo had left to attend his meeting with the prefects.

He had mumbled a ‘ _ see you later _ ’ as he opened the door, but the violent bickering had meant it went unheard. Typical. He was left to sigh and walk away.

However not long after his temporary departure, River and Juniper had somehow given up with the argument and poked fun at it instead, so they were sprawled across the seats, discussing some of their dumb ideas—a past time that filled a lot of their time together. Their positions changed many times and eventually, River was sat up and had reached for an envelope, her new ink pot and a new quill, as her sister rested her back and head on her right side.

“ _ Ooh _ . Is there something you have to tell me, Riv’? That's a new address.” cooed the older of the pair.

“Yeah, it is. It's the address of my new pen pal, which I forced myself to start doing, when I realised you were being a sissy, a week into the holidays,” explained the brunette matter of factory.

“Does Ma know?” Juniper asked, arching an eyebrow, deliberating the information.

“No. Because you know what'll happen the moment she finds out I made friends, Junie,” reminded River, having set down her quill to rub her freckled nose. Then in a voice that was too high pitched and over accented, she reminded them both of their dear mother's often stale thinking path. “ _ Oh, well if it's so easy for you to write to someone, you can talk to someone at school _ .”

But now that she thought of it like that, it did seem a little less daunting now. She'd never admit it out loud, out of stubborn spite.

Juniper snorted. “You're getting better, but make sure to roll every single ‘R’, then maybe you'll be good as me.”

“You're the best at it. I can't beat genius.”

“What can I say? My improv skills have always been through the roof.” The middle child remark before pushing herself up, and sighing. “River…”

“Hmm?”

Juniper twiddled her pale thumbs, knitted her eyebrows and scrunched up her lips. “Have you not yet considered the dangers...of this thing. Y’know, with that nutter Voldy about, and all.’

“One: Don't say the name. Ma and Pa call him ‘The Jester’ for a reason. Two: I felt like it was my only option when you didn't come home.” River said, matter-of-factly, hands on hips.

“Riv’, don't turn it against me. Not when ol’-nutter-face-Jester-cunt is involved. ‘Makes me sound as bad as ‘im.”

“Sorry…” She apologised, spotting their brother walking back down the carriage. “But—I mean—no harm could come from it… Right?”

“Nah, I'm just tellin’ you to be careful, okay?” Juniper nodded, as her brother opened the door. “Oh, hello stranger.”

“Where were you?” asked Eduardo, sharply.

“Oh y’know, here, with our sister, where you left me.” His younger sister said, her eyebrows knitting together, this time in confusion.

“Well, I don't know if you've forgotten, but you were appointed prefect last year.”

“I'm still a prefect?” She asked. “Huh, and here I thought Professor Dumbledore would have disallowed me to keep the position.”

“Well, sit comfortably, I'll talk you through everything.”

While her brother and sister discussed their duty for the year, River occupied herself by addressing an envelope to her parents, so she could write to them before she slept that evening. She was the only one that kept them informed for the first week, now as her two older siblings had a lot on their plates. She marvelled excitedly at the way this new quill handled the ink. She had made sure to get the same brand and colour of ink each year, and only now—in her third year—had she found a pretty enough quill that made writing effortless.

Once that was sorted she picked her book up off of the floor and started to read from where she left off. Now that she had mostly expressed her disdain to Juniper, her reading had become enjoyable again.

Eventually the Hogwarts Express had slowed to a stop, they had collected their cases and rode the carriages up to the castle. The old buildings majesty always seemed to relax the students. In fact, it almost made Juniper forget about having to repeat a year.  _ Almost _ . The fact that her four old buddies, who had completely abandoned her, were in the carriage behind her and her siblings was the only reminder now.

Before she knew it, the sorting was almost over. Dumbledore soon put a hand out to McGonagall before taking his place beside her.

“Now, not so often than we would like, do we have the pleasure of sorting students who are much too old to be classed as a first year student. This year, we have the pleasure of housing another third year student, so I hope you will all be kind to her.” He smiled, and nodded, stepping back.

Professor McGonagall comically raised her eyebrows at the current Headmaster. Ouch, way to single them out. It was as if he was trying to get them to have a personal vendetta against him for all eternity.

“Ursuline Vanderpoole.” After Gryffindor’s head of house clearly read out the name, the person—the girl it belonged to stepped up to the stool and sat down. From what Juniper could see, Ursuline had hair that was as black as coal and it was so straight it was almost bizarre-looking, and definitely impressive. Hogwarts’ new addition wore a closed smile that conveyed that she seemed rather comfortable when staring at her feet with steely eyes, rather then straight ahead.

The sorting hat tried to get her to speak, but ended up staying silent, as if it was judging by her thoughts.

“HUFFLEPUFF!” It suddenly announced giving Wanda such a fright so that she squeaked in surprise under the mental cheering coming from the badgers.

Kingsley and Juniper fell about laughing as the youngest Shacklebolt glared toward them, only to have the laughter grow obtusely louder.

The Headmaster followed up the sorting by introducing the new Defence Against the Dark Arts professor, a position that was reappointed yearly. This year it was Fabian Prewett, which Juniper, Kingsley and Wanda were all entirely shook about, purely because he, along with his twin brother Gideon, his sister Molly, his brother-in-law Arthur and his nephews Bill and Charlie (of which the former was 5 and the latter was 3), he had visited the Shacklebolt household 7 times, at the very least, during the summer.

Gloria had made herself overly acquainted with Molly as she once rescued first year Kingsley and Juniper from Lucius Malfoy (a seventh year, like Molly at the time) and Bellatrix Black (who was a fourth year). In thanks, after Kingsley had wrote home, Gloria said she would do anything Molly wanted to repay her as she was—and still is—rather extra like that. The Prewett, now Weasley, woman simply asked her to help build up her food charming skills. From there, the two women became best friends.

The Darling child couldn't get over it. All that time and he hadn't said a thing.  _ Now _ Juniper could explain why he only grinned when she had woefully informed him about having to repeat a year. Sneaky fucker.

Soon enough the feast began, and Juniper leaned toward her sister who had sat opposite her. “Perhaps you should try and make friends with that new girl. What was her name? Ursula?” She said, while talking immediately after she had shoved a chicken drumstick in her mouth. She had put nothing else on her plate yet.

“For one, it's Ursuline. Two: you're crazy, Junie. I can't do it.” River said, almost choking on a rather thick slice of corned beef pie.

The pair had been taught table manners, but they opted not to use them, unless the situation called for them.

“She seems quiet and reserved, like you. Besides, you need to put Dumbledore’s house unity rant to rest. And, personally, I think you'll get along great,” convinced the blonde, using her winning smile.

“Fine, but promise to always come home in the summer while you're still at school… And promise to pass all of your OWLs this time.” River said, holding out her hand.

“I promise.” Juniper responded, shaking her sisters hand.

The vow was sealed. She  _ had  _ to pass the year now.


	4. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

The moment she woke up, she was embarrassed. Perhaps she was exhausted with all of the eating, or perhaps it was the arguing. Either way, she had fallen asleep in the mom jeans and t-shirt she had been wearing yesterday. Hell, she crashed so hard, she fell asleep with her bra on.

And she hadn't even had a chance to speak to her new dormmates.

“Perhaps we should wake her up. She'll probably not wake up at all, especially considering the volume she was snoring at. She must be so tired.” One voice said, her tone quiet, laid back and indifferenced.

“Dorcas, shh! Don't be so rude.” Another said.

“But we don't know what type of riser she is. What if she gets angry if we wake her up?” added a light, gentle-sounding third voice.

“Eh, we tell her to tone it the fuck down. That’s ‘what’.” A final voice muttered.

Juniper could already get a read on their personalities, and she liked people like that. They're were all fairly open books, which was nice.

Still, she sat up and panickedly mumbled “I'm up! I'm— _ yawn _ —I’m up!”

“Er, good morning?” The girl who was identified as Dorcas said, as she watched Juniper sit up, do an almighty cat stretch and yawn profusely yet again.

Having pushed back her tangled hair, Juniper drew the curtains on the right of her bed and stepped out. “Uh, sorry. You don't need to worry about waking me up.”

“Maybe we should start over,” said the girl who had spoken second. “I'm Lily Evans, nice to meet you.” Extending a hand, she smiled up at Juniper.

“Juniper, nice to meet ya’ Evans,” nodded the tired blonde, accepting the handshake of which she made sure didn't last any longer than two seconds.

“Hi, Juniper.” The other blonde greeted with a grin and an airy tone. “I'm Alice Fortescue. Lovely to meet you.”

“Hey,” nodded the older girl politely kneeling down to her trunk and undoing the latches.

“Dorcas Meadowes. You snore loud, by the way.”

Juniper looked up to see that Lily was glaring at the mousy brown haired girl.

“Dorcas, for Godric’s sake, be polite,” said the redhead with a scowl.

“It's cool. I know I snore. I'll be charming the curtains later on,” shrugged Juniper.

Lily and Dorcas shared a look of surprise; their new dormmate was really chilled out.

“Marlene McKinnon.” A girl with dark brown hair had said, pushing herself up, having been leaning on her bed frame. “Breakfast ends in forty five minutes.”

Alarmed, Juniper put down the lid of her trunk and looked up with wide eyes. “…Shit.” Then, she took her wand from her bedside table walked to the bathroom which was parallel to the exit of the room, yelling accio as she opened the door.

Within a matter of minutes, she was wearing all of the items of the uniform bundle, her hair was in a bun that was held in place by her wand, all of the hair on each parietal ridge dropped to the bottom of her rib cage, and she had charmed her clothes to subtly smell of parma violets, a muggle sweet she enjoyed as a kid, since there was no time for showers.

“Alright, ladies, let's roll.” Juniper nodded, straightening out her tie.

As the five left the common room, they immediately came to a stop. A huge crowd had gathered, waiting for the staircase to come back around.

Juniper slumped over, her stomach growling obnoxiously.

“Jesus,” said Marlene, brashly. “Someone's hungry.”

“The beast has awoken.” the oldest of the five mumbled, glaring at some fourth years in her way.

Alice cocked a pale brow. “What beast, Juniper?”

“The hunger beast has been released. Get me to this fucking feast already.”

“Hey, that rhymed— _ and she's gone _ .” Dorcas noted, as Juniper began storming through the crowd, starting her venture to the Great Hall.

“Shit, we should probably—” Marlene began, but was interrupted by a shrill shriek.

It appeared in amongst the parted crowd was a first year who had been somehow thrown out of her position and was now clinging onto a sixth year who she—presumably—did not know.

“Oh shit, look at that. Drama already.” A certain Potter boy called from the portrait hole.

Lily's face scrunched up, her expression becoming too readable, only for her to really emphasise how the tone of his voice made her feel. “Oh for—Morgana’s saggy tits. Blast it all.” She said, before calling back to her fellow prefect. “Remus, you deal with the first year! I'm going after the culprit.”

And she was off.

Dorcas was tempted to yell the reason, but at that point, the entire school aside from the first years knew the answer. The three girls followed her, able to offer Lupin a smile as a greeting before they reached the bottom of the stairs.

“Nice one, James,” laughed Sirius. “You've scared Evans off already, and we don't even know what we have first lesson.”

“It was bound to happen.” Peter remarked, leaving Potter to puff out his cheeks, still not quite resigned to his fate of being ‘the guy she hated the most’, even after four years.

“Hey, what the hell, Juniper?!” Lily yelled, upon spotting Juniper sitting at the table with half of the assortment of food that was laid out on a morning crammed onto her plate, as well as a bowl of cereal on the side.

The blonde looked up mid-mouthful of cereal, smiling innocently which made a bit of milk dribble out of her closed lips, and waved.

When the four younger girls actually took in the scene in front of them, they simply looked at each other. Lily managed to take her eyes away from the hoard, to notice a small plate of two pieces of buttered toast and a bowl of the same cereal. She noticed that it was separated from Juniper's food, so she matched it up with a face, which was stuffed in a textbook.

The brick-like realization caused the fiery redhead to drop her pointed finger and quietly stammer, mumbling the same thing to herself, though it was incoherent to anyone else. She remembered yesterday, the meeting on the train. She face palmed with a surprising amount of force.

“Uh, Lily?” Alice asked, as Dorcas quirked an eyebrow at the sudden slap.

She stomped over, but as she got a meter or two away, she was overcome with some form of brutal bewilderment.

“ _ What?! _ ” she shrieked. “Kingsley! This is your friend?”

The sixth year looked up at her and smiled politely. “Morning Evans, and yes. This is my fellow prefect and best mate, Juniper Darling.”

“You're a prefect! And you did—!?” Lily was fighting to keep her hands from wrapping themselves around Juniper's neck.

“Why don't you ladies all sit down, and we can discuss this in a  _ calm _ manner.” nodded Kingsley, gesturing to the free spaces opposite them where their four previous friends now refused to sit. “Calm down, Evans, please. I'm sure she's done worse.”

He managed to get the quartet to sit down, Lily creasing her forehead with a healthy amount of displeasure for a Tuesday morning. And though Juniper was an older prefect who could appear far more threatening, she made sure not to make eye contact with Evans as the girl explained exactly why she was mad.

Sighing, Kingsley looked at Juniper who was almost done drowning in her bowl of cereal before saying: “Yeah, she's done worse.”

“How can anything even be as bad as almost killing a first year?” Marlene had decided to converse for an already burnt-out and bewildered Lily, in a much calmer tone.

“Okay, so, last year. Same situation, except it wasn't a first year student, it was Professor Flitwick.” The boy explained, sliding a bookmark into the DADA textbook.

Juniper immediately looked down and snorted, her lips contorting into several strange shapes, while her shoulders shook a little. 

“What happened? How is she  _ still _ a Prefect?” Lily asked, not quite being able to comprehend the difference between this description of Juniper and the girl she had spoken to this morning. 

“Juniper, take the wheel. I know you love this story.”

“Well, Professor McGonagall chased me and took me into her office before yelling at me and issuing me a detention. In that detention, I was asked to write a letter, and I did.  _ But _ when she wasn't looking, I charmed it so when she read it was the five paragraphs she expected of me, but when Flitwick read it, it only said ‘I'm sorry for what I did when I was hungry, Professor’.” She took a moment to properly pause for air and laugh inwardly. “When I got into my next Charms class, he high fived me and told me that he accepted my apology and that I only had to write 8 inches for the assignment on illusion charms.”

And with that, Marlene, Dorcas and Alice burst out laughing with the blonde while Kingsley caught a smirk crossing Lily's face, while chuckling himself.

“Alright, Juniper, I won't deduct any house points if you promise to apologise to that poor girl within the next week.” nodded the redhead, feeling herself smile.

“If you can get her name for me.”

Evans drew out a long, weighted sigh, looking to the side, to find Remus walking toward her. He offered an unsure and awkward smile.

“How is she? The girl?”

“She's fine, honestly. I checked her over briefly; she was just in shock. I awarded her five points for bravery to get her to smile again. Besides, Gryffindor always needs a head start.” The brunet said, his voice still kind of grovely and tired-sounding.

Lily nodded and shook her head. “Excuses, excuses, Remus…” But she had stopped to think about his reasoning, especially considering his troublemaking brotherhood, the Marauders (as they called themselves), happened to be all affiliated with Gryffindor house. “You're right, we do. But don't go chucking points around left, right and centre, you'll lose your position in no time.”

“Ignore her, Remus. Professor McGonagall doesn't have any other male Gryffindor like you. She couldn't do that.” Kingsley nodded as a greeting as he spoke.

“Ah, very kind of you to say, Shacklebolt.” He then gazed tiredly at Lily with a sharp turn of his head. “Did you catch the culprit, then?”

Lily slowly swept her eyes toward Juniper who was totally listening but looked to be gazing into the blue sky of the ceiling with a face that resembled something like a ball of mozzarella cheese—a pale white base with a glistening glaze of pure nothing to top it off.

But Lupin did not catch on as soon as his fellow fifth year prefect would have liked. “Yes? No? They're already in McGonagall's office, right? It was Peeves? ...Come on, Lily. Please, tell me, I'm too tired for guessing games right now.”

Evans took it upon herself to swing her head around to match the direction of her gaze. Juniper could have sworn she had thought Lily was as docile as the object of her namesake. Along with Remus, the other three girls and Kingsley followed this movement. 

Lupin opened his mouth and stammered, but no sound formed in his throat after that. How could someone, that appeared as fragile as a flower, almost cause a death? No, he reminded himself, he wasn't to judge someone by something as silly as appearance. After all, Padfoot had told him to stop doing that as it might help him to find it within himself to like who he is now, before letting the judgement of that half be clouded by the judgement of the other, as so many others would. As the blonde in front of him almost definitely would.

And as he tried again to form a worthy sentence to express all that he was feeling, she shook her head and interrupted him. “Look, I didn't intend to commit attempted murder, and so, I am going to do the right thing,” she had said before following up the phrase with a heroic, hands-on-hips stance, only for Kingsley to offer an omniscient expression. His right eyebrow and lips had quirked up slightly, making her add onto her last thought, “ _ For once _ . I aspire to be a good person.  _ Well _ , a decent person, at least.

“Well, you've got a long way to go.” He informed, and somehow already had sunk back into the pages of his textbook.

“Very funny, dickhead.” She said, smacking the back of his head.

“Go ahead and prove my point even further. I don't have to do anything at all.” He smirked, to which the younger girls laughed.

However, Juniper had barely remembered to ask for the girl's name, and the scarred boy had already begun to walk away. So after swallowing, promptly choking on a whole intact half of a buttered croissant, and chugging some pumpkin juice to help it the rest of the way down, she croakily called out to him.

“Oi, Lupin, I think your name is. C'mere, I'm not finished with you yet, kid.” She said, shouting embarrassingly, with that definite  _ I almost just choked _ gravelly sound to it.

He jumped and turned back around to watch as the girl squeaked, due to the textbook that Kingsley brought down on her head with a thump, telling her off for being rude immediately after. When Remus reached their section of the table again, he shoved his hands in his pockets.

“What can I do for you?” He asked, politely, looking down at her, patiently.

“Could you tell me what that little soul's name is? You know, so I can be a good prefect?” Juniper managed, before coughing into her fist with a pained expression. “Fuck, that knacks.”

“Madeleine Hyland.” He told her, with an honest smile and a brief nod, and turned to the sound of his mates bantering as they walked to join them.

“Okay,” smiled Juniper, offering a thumbs up, then gesturing with open arms at the food that sat on the table in front of her. “This stuff isn't all for me. I wasn't sure what you gals liked, so I hoarded a bunch of stuff. And anything you don't want, I'll save for later on, because I'm kind of selfish and always hungry.”

“That's fair.” Lily nodded, reaching her hand toward the collection of food.

“Shit, Juniper, that's nice of you.” Marlene grinned, following the redhead's movement.

Yet again, Lupin turned around and tapped Juniper on the shoulder. “Hey, by the way, you got my name right. Remus Lupin. But, uh, I didn't catch your name.”

Smirking, Juniper shrugged then folded her arms. “I didn't throw it.”

Unfortunately, his friends were in proximity of hearing their conversation because as soon as she had said that, he heard James mumbled, “Shit, that was so fucking smooth, like actually.” Sirius and Peter readily agreed in amazement.

“My name is Juniper Darling. You might as well remember it, I’m in your year now.” She shrugged, her confidence had faltered completely by the end of her sentence, and she had awkwardly looked down, tapping the tips of her index fingers together.

“Do you mind if I ask what happened?” Remus cocked his head to the side, along with Lily and Alice.

“It probably isn’t hard to see why, but I _failed_ _all of my O.W.Ls last year_. I am, as an intellect would say, a dumb.” The blonde nodded, admittedly.

The boy with messy black hair and huge, brown, rectangular frames on his face held out his hand for Juniper to shake. “Well, Darling, I’m James Potter, he’s Sirius Black, and that one there is Peter Pettigrew. Welcome to the fray.”

Juniper’s face twisted in annoyance. “Don’t call me that, for gods sake.”

James, Remus, Peter and Sirius burst out laughing, actually keeling over one another at some point.

“Whatever you say,  _ Darling _ .” James continued, wiping tears of laughter from under his lenses.

“Potter,” Lily’s voice chimed from the other side of the table, which immediately made him straighten up, look toward her and attempt to stop laughing. “I’d just like to mention, like Remus and I, Juniper is a Prefect.”

Potter froze in place, after looking toward his band of brothers. It was Juniper’s turn to laugh as he began to spew up apologies, but it got old after a few seconds, so she held out her hand, imitating him.

“Call me Juniper and you’ve met your match, Potter.” Juniper nodded and smiled with a handshake to which he now gleefully returned. Once he pulled back, she offered the same hand to Black, Lupin and Pettigrew. “That goes for you lot as well.”

“I think this is the beginning of something beautiful.” Sirius said, sweeping his bouncing black locks behind his shoulder.

“Oh  _ shut it _ , Black.” Evans threw in immediately, face palming audibly once more.


	5. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Find out what happens in the first Charms class of the year!

**Chapter 4**

The first class of the year was Charms, with the Ravenclaw students. And it was weird. She had seen all of these faces getting sorted at her second year feast, and aside from those who had greeted her this morning, Juniper didn’t have a clue who any of them were.

James, Sirius and Peter were taunting their mate over his interaction with her at breakfast, but she decided not to get involved in case he thought she didn't think of him as anyway incapable to deal with his own friends by himself. Lily, Dorcas, Marlene and Alice were chatting at a speed that made it hard for the older girl to understand them. Particularly Alice; she could have talked for England.

Juniper sat with her cheek smushed into her hand, leaning her elbow on the desk beneath. Now she was bored, after having spent however long her time measurement of ‘forever’ had actually been redoing her hair so that she didn’t look like garbage all lesson. After all, she couldn’t keep her wand in it as Flitwick didn’t ever let their first day back in Charms consist of theory.

“Excuse me, can I sit here?” A voice asked. She knew, without a doubt, that it was a pubescent guy before she even looked in the direction of the voice break.

But when she did, her first thought was confirmed. He had brown hair that, though mostly brushed, made him look a bit windswept and interesting. His eyes were also brown, his lips were so thin they were barely there, and his acne was terrible. She caught a laugh before it slipped out, thinking that he looked like a particularly greasy pepperoni pizza. No, she had to be better. Think better.

“Of course you can.” She smiled and while he dumped his bag on the desk and threw himself on the seat beside her, she held out her hand. “Nice to meet you, I’m Juniper Darling.”

“We’re a right pair of cards, already, eh? I’m Frank Longbottom.” His tone definitely made him sound humoured by his own name. And as they shook hands, Juniper tried to fend off a grin. “I know. Who calls their kid Frank, right?” He asked, clearly having understood why she was smiling, and soon she started to laugh.

“Sounds like a band name. Darling Longbottom.” She mused, cackling into her desk. “I am hyper as fuck because I had far too much sugary shit this morning. I apologise if your head’s banging by the end of this lesson.”

Frank only shrugged. “Sugary  _ shit _ . How honestly delectable.” He feigned a sickly expression, which made her laugh even harder than before.

“You're a force to be reckoned with, Frank. You can roll with the punches like no one else I know.”

His shoulders visibly lifted, as his thin, crusty lips stretched and his cheeks rose even higher than they were before. It had never been so easy to get along with someone before.

Juniper stretched as she sat back, folding her arms when they hit the desk behind her and laid her head down on them. Having yawned for the span of at least twenty seconds, Frank looked on at her, amazed.

"Well, never mind, here comes my sugar crash." Juniper grinned, shutting her eyes.

Longbottom shrugged and put his own arms on their desk and lay down in them. He was perfectly okay with a friendship like this. He would later find that enjoying the company of a silent Juniper was a rare sight to behold, and he would learn to make the most of it.

Before she fell into a light sleep, all the girl heard was that her dormmates had started to frantically whisper to one another, and Alice seemed to be panicking the most. She didn't know why, and  _ girly _ conversation had never really interested her before, so she decided to ignore it. 

Professor Flitwick soon arrived, but even the slam of the door didn't seem to make Juniper jump, who was now snoring loudly, to the amusement of the Marauders (who were snickering to one another), the girls and Frank (who couldn't seem to keep a smirk to themselves).

The half-goblin climbed up the staircase of books, and stood at his podium, attempting to compose himself, listening to how the class fell silent aside from Juniper's snoring and the giggles and snickers of the usual suspects. He decided to start his lesson with a little bit of humour, so he turned to wait for Juniper to wake up, checking his watch from time to time.

Although she was one of his prized students for both knowledge and wit, Flitwick was unsure of how she had failed her exam for Charms. Yet, he couldn't complain. It would mean he was able to teach her for one more year.

Frank slowly sat up, and assessed the situation. Clearly, there were some people counting on Juniper to remain asleep during the entire lesson so they didn't have to lift a finger, but there were also some waiting for her to wake up. He realised he had control right now. He had the decision to make something of their first lesson or not. It would be too great of a power to waste.

Locking eyes with the Professor, his smirk became a power hungry, giddy grin and he turned to Juniper, clearing his throat quietly. Standing, he made sure not to make any noise.

The Charms Master could already feel a laugh, knowing that this had happened before, a year and a bit ago. He knew how she'd react.

Frank, who was positively hysterical with power, slammed his hands down on the desk as hard as he could, leaned forward and yelled, "JUNIPER, WAKE UP," as loud as he could in her face, in one swift movement.

Her eyes shot open, she squealed and scrambled to find something to hold onto. However, this attempt was in vain because she fell back and off of her chair, hitting her head off of the desk behind her in the process.

Laughter erupted from the class, Flitwick included, as she calmed herself down, resting her hand over her throbbing heart.

Frank once again cleared his throat and offered a hand down to her. "You alright, Juniper?"

"My head hurts, I've had heart palpitations and that felt like a near death experience, but aside from that," listed Juniper, as Frank pulled her up with a whole load of strength she wasn't expecting. She surprised him in response by keeping a hold of his hand, and clapping him on the back in a playful way. "Dude, fuck! Nice! I can respect that. That was fucking A!"

They shared a high five, and sat down again.

"Darling, I'd appreciate it if you could attempt to stay awake in my class. Feel free to spend your free time sleeping, but not in Charms." Flitwick nodded in her direction.

Turning to look at him at the speed of lightning, she nodded. " _Good_ _morning_ , Professor! Of course, anything for you, babe."

Chuckling, Flitwick shuffled his papers and shook his head. “Well, alright, let's begin our year with some revision of our favourite spell, Accio!”

“Woo,” cheered Juniper, who still sounded half asleep. “More of...this. I’m  _ so _ happy.”

As Frank laughed, the Charms Master smirked. He knew a way to take the sarcasm out of her tone and get her ready for her session with McGonagall next.

“Actually, I was hoping you could help me out this morning, Miss Darling.” He began. “Given your prior knowledge and slightly advanced skill level, I would like you to show your fellow students what you are able to do with the summoning spell.”

Immediately, Juniper jumped up and hopped over the desk, shedding her robe and throwing it back at Longbottom, who seemed to have jolted to life, watching how her own excitement had fueled her.

“Frank, pass my wand over here.” She said, putting her hands close together, outstretching them in front of her chest, readying herself to catch the magic stick.

He threw it and she barely missed her chance to look cool and catch it. So, while Juniper picked up her wand, her Professor continued to talk.

“Alright, Miss Darling is very skilled in Charms. So, after we revise the summoning charm, I will allow her to duel a dummy or two, or perhaps a few of you, if your confidence isn’t knocked,” shrugged Flitwick.

After an hour of group discussion on the topic of Accio, Juniper found herself able to loosen up and crack a few jokes, laughing obnoxiously after her Professor's responses. Flitwick's comebacks were best when the joke was of a phallic focus.

"Correct, Mr Lovegood. So, as long as you perform the spell correctly, expect it to work at will, no matter the subject," said the half-goblin, nodding proudly toward his apprehensive student.

"So, like," started Juniper, scribbling down more notes in that second than she had taken in her entire career as a student. "So, if I were to, I dunno, use the summoning charm on…maybe a guy's wang, could I expect to see the most powerful hip thrust of all time, Professor?"

The Marauders couldn't help but follow up Frank, Marlene and Dorcas' gut-busting laughter with their own at the question. James was beginning to like this Darling girl more and more. He'd have to discuss it with his brothers, but he was considering welcoming her to be their first Lady Marauder, despite having disputed that the title was reserved for Evans since they officially formed their group.

"Contrary to popular believe, Miss Darling, you should expect to see major bodily damage and a hospital bill to cover the cost of the reattachment."

To the Charms Master's answer, Sirius let out such a squeak that the girls in the class, including Marlene (of whom he’d fancied for quite a while), were laughing at him hysterically. James had used his hands to shield his manhood, a movement that a lot of the boys had taken to following. Remus had promptly crossed his right leg over his left to keep his own dignity intact.

Though she was afraid to ask, Juniper let the question slip from between her lips. "And if they're lucky enough to have it reattached so that it functions, what are the lasting effects?"

"Aside from the scarring, there would be no more growth and, no, Skelegrow would not work; and you know that, Juniper, so don't bother asking." Flitwick almost chuckled at her pricelessly humoured expression, but changed the topic.  "Are you ready to present your skill to the class?"

“Alright. I’m going to need a bit more room, then.” She said, walking backwards until her back hit the wall opposite to where the Professor stood.

He summoned a dueling dummy which separated them both. “What I’d like you to do, Juniper, is to use the items around the room to hit the marked points on this dummy. And don’t worry about breaking it; there's a spell for that.”

“Yes, Professor.” She nodded, having to fight the urge to refer to him as ‘Sensei’.

“Stance! …And remember, you can use other charms in dueling club. But for now, just accio.”

The blonde drew her wand, showing off her almost perfect foot stance and body position, adding her own flare. She seemed to have woken up with a start, and her expression was rather serious compared to her previous behaviour.

As he verbally made a note of each element in the blonde’s perfect stance, the Professor could see that her pupils were flickering, allowing her to make a plan of attack. He could tell she had been practicing her technique over the summer, knowing that her creative use of accio alone would make her a worthy foe in any battle or duel.

“GO,” called Filius, with an excited clench of his fists the moment her body shot forward.

Juniper, keeping a moderately low stance, charged forward. Considering that there were very few useable objects in the room, Juniper knew she had to get creative with books.

So, while aiming at one book in particular, she though she would take out the left arm first. An old text book flew past Flitwick’s head, almost hitting him, and as it did, the two shared a look. Nodding, Juniper caught the book with a mumble of ‘wingardium leviosa’, angled the book to the right arm before using depulso to send it flying. She rolled and took out the legs with two neat accios.

James, completely enamoured by this, yelled “Finish him!” And Sirius started laughing, trying to keep his eyes open long enough to see it happen.

Relying on the strength in her core and her arm, the girl rolled backwards, flashing just about everyone and laddering her tights as her knee hit the ground, before once more launching herself forward. After a brief sprint, again casting accio, she used four books as a form of staircase, before the final accio was used to lure a book toward her hand. After tossing it at the head of the dummy and watching as the wooden structure crumpled, she forcefully landed on the book pile behind Flitwick who started a round of applause. 

After tucking her wand behind her right ear, Juniper curtsied in a way that made her teacher bark laughing. “Thank you! Thank you! Thank you for gracing me with your  _ presence _ .” While on her way toward the middle of the floor once more, she looked back at her Professor.

When he folded his arms nodded in response, Juniper rose her arms up by her side, smiling confidently around the room. “Would anyone care to face me?”

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Alice slowly start to put her hand up. However, Marlene grabbed her wrist and pulled down her hand to rest in her lap again.

“No way, Allie! She’ll ice you,” violently whispered McKinnon to the blonde who just smiled and giggled in response.

Next to them, Frank, Dorcas and Lily were glancing over to Potter, Black, Pettigrew and Lupin, who were in a very heated, and again whisper-y, discussion.

“Oh! I know!” James exploded, still trying to be quiet about it. “We should send our Moony!”

Oh, they had the older girl’s attention now, and they didn’t even realise it.

“Yeah! You’re great at Charms, Remus! We should so send you out!” Peter agreed.

“Guys, I’m not your damn peon! You can’t just send me out because you think ‘ _ Oh, it’d be so cool to watch Remus get his ass served to him _ ’! Is that all I am to you?!” The brunet asked, feeling downtrodden after the anger subsided.

“No! No, not at all,” said Potter, while Sirius put his arm around Lupin’s shoulder and outstretched his palm, gesturing across the room.

“Imagine how it’d feel to get such a glorious victory! It’s right under her ski—!”

“Sirius, you scruff bag!” Dorcas burst. “Don’t bother finishing your sentence! That’s gross! No wonder Marlene will never date you!”

“That and she’s a  _ biiiig _ gay,” mumbled Lily from behind her hand.

“Yeah,  _ huge _ lesbian.” Dorcas reiterated through a cough that made it fairly unintelligible, yet still obvious as to what she’d said.

Juniper looked to Alice, expecting her to have prepared a third sly remark,  but when nothing came, she looked over to see that Alice had officially taken her place as top airhead of 1975. Come to think of it, did Alice even know about it?

By the sound and look of it, when Juniper came to look, Sirius didn’t have a clue, and somehow hadn’t heard what Lily and Dorcas had mumbled. He had cocked his head at them and frowned when Marlene began to laugh.

“I’ve made up my mind.” Juniper stated bringing the room to complete silence.

“Go on then, Remus.” James laughed, all to confidently, and Moony had a look of actual fear in his eyes; whether it was for his social life or his actual life, no one really knew. Either way, he began to rise from his seat.

“No. No, Lupin sit down.” To this sentence, the council of Marauders looked confused, and Frank looked rather relieved for Remus. “No. Potter,  **you** . You don’t have a choice, because you were to first to attempt to put someone else up for it.”

“But I—.” The bespectacled boy stopped as he heard Lily giggling with Alice, who had tuned in once more to understand what was going on now.

“No ifs. No buts — though I have a very fine one. Get your wand.” When the boy hesitated, she pinched the bridge of her nose and yelled. “Come and duel me out in the open, not from your seat, you cowardice son of a—!”

“Miss Darling!” Flitwick warned, trying to fight a large grin.

“Sorry, Professor.” She nodded, remembering to take a few deep breaths afterward.

“But, yes, Mr Potter. Please stand in front of my lectern, and Miss Darling will stand parallel to you.”

Juniper took her place confidently, while James seemed apprehensive when tip-toeing to his spot. The blonde whipped her wand out from behind her ear, twirling it around her fingers with such speed and skill than James almost dropped his own.

He thought it unfair that he was being made to duel an older student on the first day back. He was barely ready to prank anyone, nevermind duel!

He was whipped out of his thoughts by the call of his professor.

“Juniper Darling versus James Potter in the first duel of the year!” He announced, making a bigger spectacle out of this than Sirius made of a Quidditch match.

“Go on, James!” His friends hollered and whooped.

“Stance!”

“You can do it, Juniper!” Frank cheered, through his cupped palms while the two duelists followed the instruction.

The prefect smirked as her eyes flickered to him before she quipped, “I know.”

“…BEGIN!”


	6. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Juniper Darling vs James Potter!  
> Prepare for a spicy duel!

**_Previously:_ **

_“Juniper Darling versus James Potter in the first duel of the year!” He announced, making a bigger spectacle out of this than Sirius made of a Quidditch match._

_“Go on, James!” His friends hollered and whooped._

_“Stance!”_

_“You can do it, Juniper!” Frank cheered, through his cupped palms while the two duelists followed the instruction._

_The prefect smirked as her eyes flickered to him before she quipped, “I know.”_

  
—— —— —— —— ——   
  


“BEGIN!” Flitwick cried, his excitement barely contained in the inviting gesture that spanned the circumference of his wingspan.

Eyes burning a passionate, roaring flame, Juniper yelled a sticking charm, performed the wand motion and twirled the wand quickly in her hand so that she could not be unarmed; she wasn’t dumb enough. “Accio!” She spun around waving her arc hand movement at a bunch of books behind her, and as the fleet of leather bound textbooks came toward her, she rapidly tapped them all, each time repeating, “Levioso!” So, now, she had an armada of levitating bricks of paper behind her, all gently undulating as one.

James panicked a little bit. He _knew_ it was going to hurt quite a bit, it was a rather intimidating sight too, but the way he saw Lily looking on at the duel, with such concentration. Now! He thought this was his chance, so the moment Juniper turned to face him once more he gave a shout.

“EXPELLIARMUS!” Along with his cry was, in the opinion of his Charms Professor, one of the most impassioned twirls of the wrist to date.

The scarlet light tossed the blonde’s left arm back, opening her hand at the same time, but his mouth fell agape when her wand stayed perfectly still in her left hand.

Juniper felt her lips rolled up into a smirk. “What a newbie.”

“You can’t do that!” James argued, with both arms outstretched.

“Duelling decree 7, section A, mark 3: _You may use any spell to win a duel, besides an unforgivable_. Spells of which are illegal for a reason. Yes. I. Can.” She gave him her famous cocky smirk, shrugged at the crowd of Ravenclaws, then to the Gryffindors, then returned her gaze to him. “Scared, Potter?”

“N-no!”

Her smirk became a tooth-baring grin, as she laughed at him, pitifully, for just a moment. Then the next moment happened all too fast; her face became as stern as their head of house’s could be as she raised her wand and said, “Oppugno.”

The books charged toward James, each one either pelting him in the face or in the penisiest part of his body—there was no inbetween. So.

James found himself holding on dearly to his most valued organ (one Lily would argue he used more than the one in his skull), in fetal position, mumbling expletives. When he opened his previously scrunched up eyelids he found that Miss Darling was slowly, cockily, sauntering toward him. 

“Protecting the pecker, are you, Potter?” She said, Marlene releasing a howl of a laugh immediately after.

Still cradling his grundle with one palm, he reached over to get the wand that he dropped. She was getting awfully close and he needed a second to get up. 

“ _Uh… Urgh_ , oh goddamn—FLIPENDO!”

The girl that had previously been standing right over him went flying across the room, the heels of her shoes squeaking along the old floor boards. She hit the wall and landed on her backside immediately after.

As she recovered and used the wall to slowly stand up, James jumped up and sprinted toward her. She sighed and pointed her wand up to him. “Impedimenta.”

The boy suddenly stopped in the midst of his running, his hand literally hovering above Juniper’s left breast.

“Dearie me, that was a close one,” commented the girl, shuffling past him and walking backwards, to return to the podium.

She waited until James became animated once more, so that it wouldn’t be unfair. However, he decided to play a dirty trick the moment he gathered his barings, casting a droning jinx.

The blonde scrunched her eyes near-to shutting, and covered her ears for a second, unable to think straight, so her planning process took twice as long. Ultimately, Juniper decided to use the placement charm to use the metric-shit-tonne of books behind her professor to create a sturdy wall between them, while trying to ease her mind in order to ignore the sound.

Her eyebrows knitted as she gritted her teeth, pulling at the hair nearest to the front of her scalp. “Focus, Juniper. _Focus_.”

She tried her best to look around, to see that James had somehow managed to only target her with the spell. Everyone else seemed unaffected and confused. It got more intense, which made her crouch and cover her ears again.

Their Professor was concerned and was about to call off the duel, but then, James’ voice cut through the droning (that the on-lookers thought to be silence).

“Depulso.”

A shot of white light burst through the wall of books, causing them to tumble down onto Juniper’s crumpled form, dust from between each page of the books clouding the class’ view of the blonde.

Lily gasped audible, covering her mouth, and Sirius seemed quite appalled at such a dirty trick—it was genius yet highly unhonourable.

Again, Flitwick was about to claim James a winner, but out from the dust, Juniper rose, looking mighty furious. The fire in her eyes was roaring stronger than the Charms Master had even seen from her before.

James muttered only a single short phrase. “Oh shit.”

“AVIS!” She cried, a flock of birds bursting from the tip of her wand along with what could only be described as a gunshot to the muggleborns who could place it, their tiny eyes expressing only half of the ferocity that her own did, and James started to feel a little more scared for his own life.

When they reached him, they pecked at his fingers, arms, cheeks, eyebrows, ankles, wrists and legs, and he was caught in a struggle, failing to fight them off.

“FUMOS!” She yelled creating a twisting vortex of black smoke that surrounded him, to create confusion. And then, finally, she shouted “VENTUS,” which led the smokescreen around him to become more compact and thick, her eyebrows still knitting due to the droning noise. Her hands immediately returned to her ears too.

He couldn’t be heard within the whistling and whooshing of the spiralling wind or the wildly, furious tweeting of the sparrows that nipped and pecked at his skin.

But he could still vaguely see an outline of Juniper’s form past the hurricane of black smoke. So, he raised his wand in her direction, no longer minding the pecking and nipping of the small birds’ beaks, knowing it would be all over soon.

“Finite Incantatem.”

All of a sudden, the world became silent, eerily so for Juniper. She dropped her arms to her side and opened her eyes. She couldn’t see Potter for the small storm in the room. He must have ended the droning jinx. But how did he know where to point? He was blind as a bat, I mean, those glasses are huge…

Oh, they’re magically enhanced lenses. That would explain it.

“Acendio,” cried the boy, rising to the very top of the tall room, the tip of his want gently tapping the ceiling. He looked down at her and smirked cheekily, and all she could do was stare back up, dumbfoundedly.

As he dropped to meet her, he gave a shout, “CONFUNDUS!”

Oh god. That spell was hard to cast even at teaching level, and required a whole lot of concentration that James just didn’t seem to have in that moment. And if it was performed wrong, that spell could have extremely damaging consequences. The glaring pink light of the spell came rushing toward her, as did James. Juniper was panicking now. What could she do? It was 5 inches from her face. Five inches from disaster.

Uh. Um. Shit.

She clenched her hand into a fist, as she’d dropped her wand to cover her ears, and it wasn’t close enough to reach in time, and thought of the only spell she knew that could deflect it. This could either go horribly wrong or she would be just about safe. She brought her hand above her head and took in a large breath.

“PROTEGO!”

Flitwick dropped both his wand and his jaw, watching as a bright orb of gold-white light shot out from the girl’s hand, surrounding her. It deflected the pink, and surely poor attempt at a confundus charm, consuming the vibrant light. When Jame’s hit it, it sent the boy rocketing back up into the ceiling, his head hitting it forcefully. It swept him across the room, totally disintegrating the birds, and vanishing the black smoke like it was nothing.

Potter’s head then hit the wall, far above the door, his glasses flying forward off of his face, and he started to drop to the floor.

Juniper reached over to her wand quickly, and pointed it at the floor, yelling  a softening charm at the floor, quickly followed by the cushioning charm for good measure. And then, when he hit the floor with a slight murmur, unable to process what had happened, she mumbled one last charm: “Langlock.” 

She lay back, her head hitting the base of the lectern quite painfully, but she didn’t care. That was exhausting. She was exhausted.

The room was filled with silence.

And then, Frank rose from his chair and started to applaud the duel.

“What does that mean? Who won?” Peter asked Sirius quietly, as though he hadn’t just seen what happened.

But Black and Lupin just ignored him as he joined Frank, and now Evans, Mckinnon, Meadowes, Fortescue and Lovegood in their applause. The room suddenly filled with applause, all of their classmates and their Professor.

Flitwick picked up his wand, having stepped down from his staircase of books, and headed over to James first, still trying to process what had just happened.

“Mr Potter, are you alright?” He asked, offering the boy a hand.

He nodded and attempted to say ‘I’m fine’, but because of the last charm that Juniper had used on him, his words came out as garbled gibberish, which is how he discovered that ‘langlock’ was the incantation that glued his tongue to the roof of his mouth.

He accepted his Professor’s help to stand, and followed him over to the blonde who was panting heavily on the floor.

Silently, he offered Juniper a hand up, but she didn’t take it, finding that she still had the strength to push herself without assistance.

She stood on Flitwick’s left and James stood on his right. Then Flitwick carefully took her wrist into his left hand and rose it into the air.

“Juniper Darling wins!” He cheered.

“Merlin, I don’t feel like a winner.” She panted, tipping her head back exhaustedly. “James, you’re…a worthy foe.” She mumbled as Flitwick released her wrist from his grip.

“Uh, thanks.” He mumbled, breathing heavily.

“That was crazy as balls, Juniper!” Marlene yelled, her three friends agreeing loudly.

“I knew you could do it!” Frank agreed.

“James, you got absolutely thrashed, mate.” Black laughed, Peter nodding in agreement.

“Yeah. But, it was your own fault,” shrugged Remus, in a carefree manner.

“No.” Juniper shook her head. “I should have lost, that was a very powerful ending.”

Flitwick turned to her and smiled. “That begs the question, Miss Darling: how did you do that? That was the most powerful shield charm I have ever seen with my own eyes. There are aurors who can’t produce a shield charm any better than some of my talented third year students.”

“I dunno. I was really distracted because he stopped that horrible droning noise and everything was so quiet. I… I guess I just panicked?”

The Charms Master chuckled. “I would love to see that again, Juniper. I’d like you to join the duelling club _and_ see me and/or Professor Prewett so you can hone that skill.”

“I’ll think about it…on both accounts, Professor.” She nodded, walking over to the boy who only now had gone back for his glasses. He seemed to be struggling to find them so she decided to give him a hand. She picked them up by the bridge and put them onto his face. “Here.”

“Cheers.”

“While it’s on my mind: stop using confundus charms. In fact, if you get an O in your Charms O.W.L., then you can start to practice them.”

They returned to their seats and, while she put her robe back on, Flitwick decided to close the lesson by asking the class about each spell that was used and how they had affected the duel.

She got bored and fished out her timetable from her pocket, finding that she had transfiguration next. Her face dropped and she slowly leaned over, laying her face onto the wood of her desk.

“Morgana, give me strength.”


End file.
